Goodbye for now
by Iceman-F1
Summary: What I think happens between 237 and 238 from the Manga. As someone told me This fic is fluffier than a pair of bunny slippers. Naruto & Hinata WAFF. Small update due to popular demand. NOW FINISHED!
1. Goodbye for now: Hinata

Basic summary. This chapter is set between 237 and just slightly in 238. This is set mostly following Hinata and a look at what might have happened with Hinata after Naruto comes back from the mission to retrieve Sasuke (or at least what I think SHOULD have happened :P ) This fic starts the morning after Naruto and Jiraiya had the talk.

I don't own Naruto or any character in this...please don't sue :P

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The streets of Konoha were filled with people still trying to fix whatever damage was left after the attack by the sound as well as those trying to do their daily shopping. We can hear the loud voices of the crowd as everyone is talking about different things, yet we can sometimes make out some of the discussions. Most of which are about Uchiha Sasuke and his running away from Konoha. In the distance we can see a blue haired teen walking down the street, looking every once in a while at the different stores, seemingly to be looking for something in particular. We can see her enter a store where we can assume she is buying what she was looking for. Inside the store, which can now be identified as a flower shop, we see the blue haired teen looking at the different flowers and asking at the counter for help.

"Ex-Excuse me, I-I was l-looking to pur-purchase a couple of fl-flowers. Wh-Which ones would s-say 'get well'?" asked the teen.

"Well, how well do you know the person? Is it for a friend or a family member? Or maybe even a loved one?" asked the flower shop owner with a slight smile on her face and a twinkle of mischief in her eyes.

"O-One is f-for a family me-member, t-the o-other is f-for someone I l-li-li..." the teen blushes and stammers out while pressing her two index fingers together as a nervous reaction.

With a knowing look on her face, the flower shop owner gives the blushing teen a few flowers. She gives the teen a Yarrow (Healing) and a Pansy (Thoughtful Reflection) for the family member and she also gives the teen an Agapanthus (Secret Love), a Baby's Breath (Innocence), a Daisy (Gentleness, Innocence, Loyalty and Romance), a Forget Me Not (Faithful Love, Undying Hope, Memory, Do Not Forget) and a Yarrow (Healing). AN – That's a LOT of flowers :P

Thanking the flower shop owner, the teen (which if you haven't guessed by now is Hinata) leaves the flower shop and heads to the hospital to go visit her family member (which is Neji if you haven't guessed that by now) and the one she secretly admires (you SHOULD know this one.

Once at the hospital, we see Hinata finding out what rooms Neji and Naruto were in. She visits Neji's room first. Finding him asleep, she silently leaves the 2 flowers with a note saying who they were from, then quietly leaves the room. Heading next to Naruto's room, she finds him also asleep. She stealthily enters the room then places the flowers and a note onto the table beside his bed. Looking around the room, she notices that no one else has brought any flowers or get well cards. Thinking that Naruto didn't have any previous visitors (to which she is almost correct), she silently pulls up a chair and sits next to Naruto. While seated, Hinata looks at Naruto, wishing that she could finally tell him how she feels. Oh how she wished she could finally tell Naruto her true feelings instead of hiding them as she has. With tears coming to her eyes, Hinata brushes a strand of hair away from Naruto's face, and softly slides her fingers across his face. With tears now slowly streaming down her face, Hinata softly grasps Naruto's hand and begins to slowly talk to him. With Naruto being asleep, Hinata finds it easier to talk to him and not stutter.

"Oh Naruto. How I wish I could tell you when you are awake, how much I really love you. You give me the confidence to continue being a ninja. Just the thought of even getting a glimpse of you enables me to get out of bed each day. If it wasn't for you during the fight against Neji, I would have given up and probably died. Thanks to you, my father has told Neji the truth of what happened to his father and has helped Neji come to terms with his loss." Hinata confesses. The tears start to come a little faster as she continues to talk to a sleeping Naruto.

"I was so scared when I found out that you went on a mission without a jounin present. I was afraid you might not come back, and I hadn't told you how I felt yet. I am so glad that you came back alive. I don't know how I would be able to live with myself had you died and I hadn't told you how I feel for you. Naruto, one of these days I WILL tell you how I feel, and I can only hope that you return those feelings" p With that, Hinata slowly lets go of Naruto's hand and slowly strokes his cheek one more time before silently leaving the room. As she is leaving, we can faintly make out a single tear leave Naruto's eye and travel down his face.

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3 months later

We see Neji training in the hyuuga compound, sparing against Hinata's father. Neji is actually doing well against Hisashi however Neji seems to be a bit more exhausted then Hisashi. Suddenly Hinata comes walking up, holding a tray of Tea.

"Ex-excuse me. The tea is ready" Hinata squeaks out.

With that, Hiashi calls a stop to the sparing session and they all sit down on a bench in the yard.

"Hinata-sama. I heard Naruto is going to leave the village for his training today. Are you sure you don't want to go see him off?" questions Neji, with a knowing look on his face.

"It-It's okay" squeaks out Hinata while blushing profusely. When all of a sudden, Kiba and Shino walk into the yard.

"Wha? You don't know? Hinata already went to see Naruto off!" shouted Kiba with his usual exuberance. As he hears that, Neji looks at Hinata questioningly.

"When she saw him surrounded by his luggage, she was like, woah, almost couldn't catch her breath. And because she felt embarrassed about that, she didn't dare show her face at all." Kiba continues with cheer and a slight mischievous smile.

"Ki-Kiba-kun." Hinata exclaims, with a blush on her face, yet remembering the moment and how happy she was at that time.

Flashback to the moment

Naruto has just finished eating ramen with Iruka, and is about to head off with Jiraiya on their training journey. He looks up at the carving of the Yondaime, to which he silently makes a pledge to come back stronger then ever so he can protect his loved ones better. Out of the corner of his eye, he spots Hinata watching him. He quickly goes over to talk to her before he leaves.

"Hey Hinata! What are you doing here?" shouts Naruto while running up to Hinata.

"I j-just came to s-say go-good lu-luck on your tr-trip" Hinata responds while blushing and looking at the ground. Hinata has reverted back to the stuttering and finger twitching. However Naruto, with a knowing look, softly takes Hinata's chin and slowly lifts her face so their eyes meet.

"Hinata. I just wanted to say thank you for what you said in the hospital that day 3 months ago. I have been thinking of what you said since then, and I can say that I love you as well. I am sorry I haven't said so earlier, but I was too lost in my own problems and with the mask of happiness I had to show every day that I didn't think there was someone out there that loved me. I have to go train with Jiraiya now, but when I come back, I hope we can be more then friends." Naruto says to Hinata in a very comforting and soft voice, unusual for the normally loud teen.

Throughout the speech, tears slowly started to well up in Hinata's eyes. By the end of the speech, Hinata was slowly crying tears of joy, to finally hear the words she so longed to hear. Seeing Hinata crying, Naruto slowly and softly wipes the tears from her eyes and gives her a gentle kiss to her cheek. All of a sudden a voice rings through the air.

"What are you doing! Let's go, Naruto!" shouts Jiraiya, wanting his new fulltime student to hurry up.

"Okay" replies Naruto as he runs to catch up with Jiraiya while giving a quick wave goodbye to Hinata.

As we see Naruto run off into the distance, Hinata voices her thoughts softly, just barely loud enough for us to hear.

"I-I must work harder too! I wi-will make Na-Naruto p-proud of me!" says Hinata with as much determination as she can muster. With Naruto now out of her site, she slowly walks back to her house, the whole time thinking of what happened and thinking of the now very real possibility of being more then just friends with Naruto. With those thoughts running through her head, a small smile starts to creep up on Hinata's face which, by the time she reaches home, becomes a full blown smile that reaches her eyes.

Finally, things are starting to look up for Hinata and even Naruto. Lets hope things stay this way.

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Well...That is the end. Did you like my first attempt at a fanfic?? Leave a review...however...please leave a GOOD review...GOOD being something helpful. Not one that just says "I LIKED IT" or "IT SUCKED". One that will help me later in writing. This is a one-shot. WILL NOT BE CONTINUED.


	2. Goodbye for now: Naruto

Basic summary. This chapter is set between 237 and just slightly in 238. This is set mostly following Naruto and a look at what might have happened with Naruto after he comes back from the mission to retrieve Sasuke (or at least what I think SHOULD have happened :P ) This fic starts basically the same time as the other one did. I am going to do this one a bit different. Where in the first part of the fic I didn't do any of Hinata's thoughts unless they were voiced aloud…this time I will do Naruto's thoughts. 

I don't own Naruto or any character in this...please don't sue :P

"text" - Regular speech  
'text' - Thoughts

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Konoha is normally a quiet place to live. Just a normal village with Ninjas and normal people just trying to live out their lives. However, today is a somewhat unusual day. It is the day after the team that was sent to retrieve Sasuke came back, and they failed their mission. That's not to say that they didn't try. They did a good job considering what they were up against. However out of the total 9 people that went, 4 are currently in the hospital with varying degrees of injuries. Chioji was very close to death after taking his families secret pills and sapping almost all his energy. Neji with the hole in his shoulder and Kiba with the stab wound in his side. Naruto happens to be the least injured, partially due to the Kyuubi and his healing powers. In the hospital, Naruto is laying on his hospital bed, thinking about many things.

'Why…why Sasuke. Why did you have to go to Orochimaru. You could have gained strength here.' Thought Naruto. 'I guess I will have to worry about this later. I need to get my rest before I leave with Jiraiya.'

While Naruto is thinking these things, someone enters his room. Not wanting to talk to the person at the moment, Naruto pretends to be sleeping. Quietly listening to the sounds the person is making, Naruto can deduce that the person came up to his bed and placed some things on the table beside him. After a short time, he can hear a chair being moved quietly and placed next to the bed. Shortly after the person sits down, he can feel the person brush some of his hair away from his face then grasp his hand.

"Oh Naruto. How I wish I could tell you when you are awake, how much I really love you. You give me the confidence to continue being a ninja. Just the thought of even getting a glimpse of you enables me to get out of bed each day. If it wasn't for you during the fight against Neji, I would have given up and probably died. Thanks to you, my father has told Neji the truth of what happened to his father and has helped Neji come to terms with his loss." Naruto hears Hinata confess.  
"I was so scared when I found out that you went on a mission without a Jounin present. I was afraid you might not come back, and I hadn't told you how I felt yet. I am so glad that you came back alive. I don't know how I would be able to live with myself had you died and I hadn't told you how I feel for you. Naruto, one of these days I WILL tell you how I feel, and I can only hope that you return those feelings"

With that, Naruto feels Hinata let go of his hand only to stroke his cheek one last time before exiting the room. As Naruto hears the door close, he finally sheds a small tear.

'H-Hinata loves me' Naruto though, obviously surprised by the confession. 'All this time, I thought of her as only a friend while trying to get Sakura to go on a date with me. All this time…' While reviewing all the times he was ever around Hinata (or at least the times he remembers Hinata being around him) he can always remember Hinata blushing and stammering. He thought she was just shy (which she is) but now that he thinks about it, he realizes the truth. With that, Naruto actually goes to sleep, only to dream about Hinata and what might be their future. And he likes it.

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The next day

Naruto is finally released from the hospital, and thinking of what Hinata said the previous day, Naruto decides to wander around the village before going home to rest. He ends up wandering to his normal training ground, the one with the three logs, and the one where he talked to Hinata before his fight with Neji.

Reminded of that fateful day where he beat a "genius" genin when all expected him to fail, and then even hearing the crowd cheer for him. With a heavy heart and tears slowly starting to come to his eyes, Naruto finds a tree to sit in and reminisce about how his life has been up to this point. Unnoticed by Naruto, Shizune was out for a walk and stumbled upon Naruto just before he went into the tree. Concerned that something might be wrong, she went over to Naruto to talk to him.

Standing under the tree, Shizune spots Naruto and decides to try to get him to reveal what is wrong.

"So, Naruto, I see you've been released from the hospital. What are you up to?" questioned Shizune with obvious concern.

"Nothing much," Replied Naruto "Just sorting out some thoughts on some things I learned while in the hospital." Stealthily "Like what? Is it about Sasuke?" asked Shizune hoping not to upset Naruto too much.

Naruto winced upon hearing that. 'Damn you Sasuke. Even when you turn traitor, people are still thinking about you. Why do you get all the attention' although Naruto was thinking this, he didn't voice these thoughts.

"Nah. I was just thinking about how blind I have been to the people around me and how many friends I truly have. I should have realized it earlier, but I was too caught up with trying to show up Sasuke and show off for Sakura that I never realized it before." Said Naruto with a sigh.

'How could I have been so stupid about all of this? I had real friends and yet I didn't bother to see what I had, only what I didn't.'

With these thoughts, more tears started to come to Naruto's eyes. Upon seeing this, Shizune decided to leave Naruto to his thoughts.

"Well, I just wanted to see how you were doing. Get better soon Naruto." And with that Shizune walked off leaving Naruto to his thoughts.

Long after Shizune left, the sun started to set and Naruto decided that he had spent enough time in the tree thinking and decided to go home. He was home after a short walk and after a quick dinner consisting of Ramen (what else P ) Naruto decided to go to sleep.

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1 week later

A week has passed since Naruto got released from the hospital and he has finally been cleared to do a bit of light training to get ready for his trip with Jiraiya. For the entire week, Naruto has been thinking of Hinata and the confession she made when he was in the hospital. Not knowing what to do about it, he decides to train in the hopes that it can clear his mind enough to be able to think better.

So day after day, Naruto does nothing but train. He tries to do the Rasengan single-handed (with out resorting to the nine-tails chakra) as well as trying to improve upon his strength, speed, and stamina by practicing his taijutsu skills. He does this by creating lots of clones to use as training partners and has the added effect that it also slowly increases his chakra reserves.

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11 weeks later (or 3 months from the time he left the hospital)

Naruto wakes up and realizes that today is the day he is to leave to go with Jiraiya. Time passed by quickly with all the training and he didn't even get to talk to Hinata at all during that time. However while he never got to talk to her, his feelings for her have grown with all the thinking he has done. He realized that she truly cared for him and he would like to see if a relationship would work. However he is a bit too late as he is just about to leave. Hopefully she will wait for him and they can start a relationship when he comes back.

Naruto quickly gets packed and goes to the Ramen stand to have a quick lunch with Iruka and say a quick goodbye before leaving. Just as he is about to leave, Naruto faces the carving of the Yondaime, to which he silently makes a pledge to come back stronger then ever so he can protect his loved ones better. Out of the corner of his eye, he spots Hinata watching him. He quickly goes over to talk to her before he leaves.

'Great. I get to say a quick goodbye before I leave. She must truly love me to be here to watch me leave, even if she is too shy to confront me.' Naruto thinks as he heads over to Hinata.

"Hey Hinata! What are you doing here?" shouts Naruto while running up to Hinata.

"I j-just came to s-say go-good lu-luck on your tr-trip," Hinata responds while blushing and looking at the ground. Hinata has reverted back to the stuttering and finger twitching. However Naruto, with a knowing look, softly takes Hinata's chin and slowly lifts her face so their eyes meet.

"Hinata, I just wanted to say thank you for what you said in the hospital that day 3 months ago. I have been thinking of what you said since then, and I can say that I love you as well. I am sorry I haven't said so earlier, but I was too lost in my own problems and with the mask of happiness I had to show every day that I didn't think there was someone out there that loved me. I have to go train with Jiraiya now, but when I come back, I hope we can be more then friends." Naruto says to Hinata in a very comforting and soft voice, unusual for the normally loud teen.

Throughout the speech, tears slowly started to well up in Hinata's eyes. By the end of the speech, Hinata was slowly crying tears of joy; to finally hear the words she so longed to hear.

'Well. If I had my doubts before, this just confirms that Hinata loves me. Lets hope she can wait.' Thinks Naruto hopefully.

Seeing Hinata crying, Naruto slowly and softly wipes the tears from her eyes and gives her a gentle kiss to her cheek. All of a sudden a voice rings through the air.

"What are you doing!? Let's go, Naruto!" shouts Jiraiya, wanting his new fulltime student to hurry up.

"Okay" replies Naruto as he runs to catch up with Jiraiya while giving a quick wave goodbye to Hinata.

As Naruto is walking away, we can see him shed a small tear to be leaving the person that he realizes he loves; however he also resolves to become stronger to protect this most precious person of his.

Coincidentally, they both think the same thing at the same time.

'I will work and train hard to not disappoint my precious person. Although we will be apart for now, we will be stronger for it in the long run.'

And with that Hinata turns to go back to her mansion to train while Naruto disappears over the horizon, not to be seen by Hinata for 3 years.

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Well...That is the end. For REAL this time. Leave a review...however...please leave a GOOD review...GOOD being something helpful. Not one that just says "I LIKED IT" or "IT SUCKED". One that will help me later in writing. THIS IS THE END NOW…No more "extra" parts. The only reason I even did this part is because some people thought that Naruto's feelings just magically appeared and I wanted to kinda show that they didn't. Even though I didn't mention any of the real training or anything specific of the 3 months, I still said that he was thinking of Hinata those 3 months. He was just busy. You CAN start to love someone you just met in 3 months if you think about them everyday and especially if they have loved you for a long time. So like I said…that's it…if you still have doubts…then you either don't have that good of an imagination and need everything pointed out for you and wrapped in a neat little package…or something else I can't think of right now. P


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